Rafa Benitez has vowed to sort out Newcastle’s home form — insisting he is not a negative coach.

The Geordies face relegation ­rivals Cardiff at St James’ Park on Saturday, having suffered eight defeats in their 11 league games there this season.

Only fellow potential top-flight fall-guys Huddersfield , who parted ways with boss David Wagner this week, are worse on their own turf across all four ­divisions.

That leaves Benitez as the manager still in work holding the record nobody wants.

Benitez admits this match is the most vital of the campaign so far. And to add spice, he called now-Cardiff boss Neil Warnock “prehistoric” in a row when he was at Liverpool .

Newcastle fans haven't celebrated a home win since beating Bournemouth on November 10 (Image: Getty)

Benitez said of Newcastle's home record: “Can I change it? I will try, that’s it.

“Hopefully we can score goals and the fans will be happy. It’s the solution for everything... to play well, score goals and try to win.

“You want to win, because you have 52,000 fans behind you. But I am clear with my message: Cardiff City will come and will say, ‘Be strong at the beginning and their fans will get on top of the players.’

“My message is we have to ­support these players. They care. They can be good or bad, but they still care. If we stick together they will feel the confidence from the fans and will be better.”

Benitez and co would climb above Cardiff and out of the bottom three with a win (Image: Action Images via Reuters)

“In other games, we were not lucky enough. Against Brighton, we had 27 attempts at home and lost 1-0. We deserved to win. But people don’t remember how you played. We were really open against West Ham and got beat.

“We try to attack and score, at home and away. But ­sometimes you get exposed at the back, like West Ham did to us. We need a balance.

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“When you go to another level - the Premier League is getting better and better – then you ­cannot compete with that.

“Tell me 27 ­attempts isn’t enough to win a game, then you lose. That tells you the defenders are better and you have to create better chances if you want to score more goals.”

Benitez won’t blame the pressure of playing in front of huge Tyneside crowds.

He added: “Can you have ­everybody on board? It’s very ­difficult because people want to win. Some don’t see the big picture. The majority of the fans ­understand that our position is not the same as other teams and that is the reason why we have to ­compete at an another level.”

Benitez had “no news” on transfers or a takeover but does expect his injury list following the midweek FA Cup win at Blackburn to ­improve, with Jamaal Lascelles, Sebastian Schar and Isaac Hayden likely to be fit.

The Spaniard, now in charge of his third English club since first arriving on 2004, added: “It’s an ­important game, but still we have many games to play.

“My analysis is very simple: We will play at home against Burnley or Huddersfield or Crystal Palace or a lot of teams where maybe you can get three points. If we are together, we will have more chances. It’s not a secret, it’s not rocket science, it’s simple.”